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Lake County Past: March 17

Completion of an 8-mile snowmobile trail through a scenic area of the Superior National Forest from Mt. Weber to the shore of Seven Beaver Lake was announced this week by Joe App, district U.S. forest ranger.

In announcing the completion of the project, App highly praised the work of youths enrolled at the Isabella Job Corps Center who built the trail under the supervision of the Forestry Department.

The trail takes the snowmobile traveler through a winding route up and down the wooded hills in the Mt. Weber areas north of Two Harbors. It continues through a canopy of spruce fir, on past an old logging camp, then follows a spruce-lined haul road to Greenwood Creek, then southwesterly along that creek to connect with the old North Star winter haul road which is a focal area of the logging days of the past in this area.

At the westerly end of that trail, the new route passes through another old logging camp site, meandering around hardwood and evergreen trees. It passes through an abandoned beaver colony area and around an old beaver dam before turning northward through mixed hardwoods and evergreens to the East River before heading west again, following East River, to Seven Beaver Lake. "The history of a great part of the new trail goes back before the turn of the century when giant logs were dragged by horses and sturdy men and the new trail will afford a new perspective into the glamorous period of the north woods," App said. "It's completion will make it possible for many more persons to share the experience of winter in the great forest."

Trees seeded by plane in region forest

Aerial seeding was accomplished on 50 acres of land surrounding the White Pine Picnic Area. This land, which once supported a stand of large virgin white pine, was seeded to red pine. The land was prepared for reforestation last summer using a D-8 tractor to expose mineral soil.

The seeding was accomplished using the Forest Service Cessna 180 airplane which is equipped with a special seeding device. Four men were all that were required to seed 50 acres in less than one hour. The pilot and one man to fill the hopper with seed were in the plane while two flagmen controlled ground operations.

The ultimate goal is to obtain 1,000 seedlings per acre which will then be managed to produce lumber and pulp for the future. The chief advantage of aerial seeding is the low cost compared to the cost of reforestation by planting.

1992

Construction award

At the 28th annual meeting of the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE) held recently, the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Lafayette Bluff Highway Tunnel located on Highway 61 north of Two Harbors received MSPE's prestigious Seven Wonders of Engineering award. The recently opened tunnel was the first mined, hard rock highway tunnel ever to be built in the mid-western part of the United States.